Narayana Hrudayalaya Pvt Ltd, which operates a chain of multi-specialty and super-specialty hospitals under the Narayana Health brand, has received approval from the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to float an initial public offering (IPO).
The healthcare chain had filed a draft herring prospectus with SEBI for the proposed IPO in September. The proposed public issue will involve a stake sale by Narayana Health's shareholders—Pinebridge (formerly AIG Capital) and JPMorgan Partners—besides its promoters.
VCCircle had reported in November last year that the firm had kick-started work on its IPO.
It is the second hospital chain to file documents for IPO. In July, Bangalore-based HealthCare Global Enterprises Ltd (HCG), one of the leading cancer treatment hospital chains in the country, had filed documents for its IPO.
Currently, there are two large listed hospital chains: Apollo Hospitals Enterprise and Fortis Healthcare. Max Hospital, which is housed under Max India, is being demerged into a separate firm as part of a corporate restructuring in which it would be listed as a healthcare and health insurance company.
Founded by cardiologist Devi Shetty in 2000, Narayana Health started with a 300-bed hospital. It has now grown to become India's third-largest hospital chain with 5,600 operational beds and the potential to reach a capacity of up to 6,600 beds.
For the year ended on March 31, 2015, the company clocked revenue from operations of Rs 1,363 crore, operating profit of Rs 137 crore and net loss of Rs 10.8 crore.
Last December, Narayana Health had raised Rs 200 crore in a fresh PE funding round from UK-based development finance institution CDC Group Plc. This deal valued the firm at Rs 3,400 crore ($535 million then).